Sibley, Iowa — The Sibley Fire Department responded to two separate calls on Wednesday.
At 9:35 a.m., they were called to the report of a vehicle fire at Highway 9 and L40. That’s a mile and a half due north of Sibley. Sibley Fire Chief Ken Huls says that when they got there, the car was fully engulfed in flame. In fact, he says the driver didn’t even have time to pull the car all the way off the road.
He says the engine compartment and interior were destroyed by fire, totaling the vehicle. He says the exact cause of the blaze is unknown, but he says it was probably mechanical and started under the hood. He says perfect circumstances existed for an aggressive fire. In fact he says the highway might even have sustained some damage.
Huls says about six firefighters were on-scene for about 45 minutes. He says the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office also responded to the scene.
Later that day, shortly before 4:00 p.m., the Sibley Fire Department was called again. This time the call was for a tractor fire near 160th Street and Redwing Avenue. That’s about two and a half miles northeast of Sibley.
Huls says when they arrived they found a front-end loader-type tractor fully engulfed in fire. He says the operator was the owner’s son and when he saw smoke behind the cab he called his dad, who then called 911. He says while the 1990 Ford New Holland tractor received enough damage to total it out, the round bale that it was transporting was not damaged. The cause of the fire is undetermined but Huls says it may have been related to the hydraulic system.
The chief says they used between 450 and 500 gallons of water to extinguish the blaze, along with some foam concentrate. He says the nine firefighters who responded were there for about a half hour.
